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The Pulse Survey Handbook including 70+ employee pulse survey questions

Last updated November 2024

If you’ve never been introduced to Stribe – hello and welcome!

We’re an employee engagement platform with the mission of creating happier and healthier teams – and pulse surveys are kind of our whole thing – in fact, they’re the lifeblood of everything we do.

And it just so happens that you’ve just stumble upon our most downloaded resource ever – The Pulse Survey Handbook including 45 of the best employee pulse survey questions to ask your team.

It’s the only pulse survey guide you’ll need, covering everything from pulse survey strategies, to survey scheduling, and how to craft the best pulse survey questions.

With it, we hope to give you the knowledge and confidence to start using surveys within your workplaces.

Enjoy!

 

  • What are pulse surveys?
  • What are the benefits of pulse surveys?
  • How to plan and execute your pulse surveys
  • How to structure pulse survey questions
  • How to make the most of employee pulse surveys
  • Employee pulse survey question examples

Get your copy! ⬇️ Stribe’s most downloaded pulse survey guide of all time (PDF). 

About the author

Lucy Harvey COO at Stribe
Lucy Harvey

Lucy Harvey, COO at Stribe, has 11+ years’ experience in purpose-driven leadership roles across health, wellbeing, internal communications, employee engagement, and marketing. She is passionate about creating workplaces where people are happy, fulfilled, and feel comfortable and safe to talk.

What are pulse surveys?

 

Employee pulse surveys are short surveys that are sent to staff regularly and periodically.

Depending on the size and structure of the organisation this might be weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or quarterly.

Pulse surveys act as regular check-ins with employees so feedback can be measured (and acted upon) more frequently – unlike annual surveys which take more time and effort to curate and analyse.

Pulse surveys are great for organisations that want to keep their finger on the pulse of employee feelings, and take an employee-led approach to their mental health, wellbeing, or employee engagement strategies.

How long should a pulse survey be?

Pulse surveys should quick to complete, and no more than 5 – 10 questions long.

How often should you send pulse surveys?

Depending on the size and structure of your organisation – and what you’re trying to achieve – pulse surveys can be sent weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or quarterly.

But what we’ve found works best is that your pulse survey frequency should be in line with how quickly you can communicate the results and create change based on employees’ feedback.

When is the best time to send pulse surveys?

Stribe data shows that the best time to send surveys are:

– Mondays 10:00am – 11:00am
– Thursdays 10:00am – 11:00am
– Fridays 2:00pm – 3:00pm

How much does pulse survey software cost?

Stribe’s pulse survey software standard pricing is £3.00 per employee, per month.

This includes complete access to the platform, all features, and full support from our team.

Discounts are available for charities, and for organisations with 100+ employees.

See Pricing

What are the benefits of pulse surveys?

 

Pulse surveys are a great way to check-in with employees regularly to understand how they’re feeling, so you can quickly spot and tackle issues that are affecting them.

As you can imagine, when you approach feedback this way, it creates a workplace where people feel heard and valued – which comes with a variety of organisational benefits.

 

  • Increased profitability

    Employees who are more engaged have higher levels of creativity and productivity and are more likely to achieve their targets – this all contributes towards higher profitability.

 

  • Reduced absence and sicknesses

    Work-related stress accounts for an estimated 13.7 million lost workdays every year. Happier and more engaged employees are less likely to take sick leave. Using employee pulse surveys will help you understand and address issues that are affecting your employees, ultimately improving your employee engagement.

 

  • A stronger employee brand

    When employees are happy at work it creates an enhanced experience for everyone. In the long run, this creates an improvement in your employee brand and the way potential employees view your workplace.

 

  • Reduced turnover and improved retention

    The higher your employee engagement, the lower your staff turnover will be. This is because employees are enjoying their work, feel happy within their team, and are bought into your organisation’s mission. This has a direct impact on your organisation’s productivity and profitability because you are spending less time onboarding teammates and getting them up to speed!

quotation mark Stribe is definitely impactful on an individual basis and an organisational one. quotation mark

Head of HR, Wigan and Leigh College.

How to plan and execute your pulse surveys

 

Planning is the key to success with pulse surveys – and we don’t just mean the questions.

Whether you’ve run none or 100 pulse surveys, it’s always good to take a step back and look at how you’re launching them to your employees.

 

  • Identify a pulse survey ‘owner’

    Having an owner will guarantee that your pulse survey moves from an idea to completion. The owner needs to have an interest in employee surveys, knowledgeable with internal communications, be able to manage key stakeholders, and have the power to make changes based on the pulse survey feedback.

 

  • Audit your systems

    Ensure your employee communication systems are up to scratch so that you can close the feedback loop with your employees when the pulse survey ends.

 

  • Identify who, what, when, where and how

    Creating a pulse survey plan that defines who, what, when, where and how will help guide your efforts. At Stribe we work with our customers to create launch plans that guarantee their pulse survey campaigns are launched without a hitch.

 

  • Decide on your questions

    Start small, and plan for every answer so that you know you can create change based on the feedback from your employees. If employees don’t see change based on their answers survey engagement rates will suffer.

 

  • Agree a pre-pulse communication plan

    How you introduce your pulse survey will have a strong impact on the response rate. Shape your messaging to align with your employees’ needs. Think about the internal communication channels you need to use e.g. company-wide email, stand-ups, Slack, and line-management networks. Focus on communicating how employee responses will shape company goals and bring managers on-board to boost response rates from their teams.

 

  • Click send!

    As soon as you have an owner, you know how you’ll close the feedback loop, and you have a communication plan agreed you’re ready to send your pulse campaign.

 

  • Review your results and decide on your action

    Once your survey has finished, bring key stakeholders together to discuss the results and the actions your organisation needs to take as a result. Create a plan of action based on the discussion.

 

  • Communicate the outcome with your employees

    Employees will want to know what changes you’re making based on their feedback. Sharing the full pulse results and what action you’re taking will help them feel heard. Encourage employees to give feedback on your communications so that you can learn how to make the process more effective for them in the future.

quotation mark We were looking for something that would level us up and help us achieve great survey engagement - and that was Stribe. quotation mark

Jason Casanove - Great Places Housing Group

How to structure your pulse survey questions

 

There’s a science to structuring and sending pulse survey questions.

If you don’t spend time thinking about the way your questions are crafted, you risk creating more questions than answers when you try to analyse your survey results.

 

  • Avoid leading questions

    We all tend to respond positively to questions if the tone makes it sound like we should.

 

  • Consider if employees should answer reflectively

    Think about whether you would like respondent’s answers to be reflective or in the moment. The structure of the question will give you different insights.

 

  • Does the question apply to all employees?

    Use questions broad enough to apply to everyone that the survey was sent to.

 

  • Will you get enough context?

    Make sure you use a mixture of open and closed questions to gather detailed insights that help you build an action plan.

 

  • Can you easily measure the answers?

    Focus on questions that create easily measured answers so that you can gain clarity from your survey results.

How to make the most of employee pulse surveys

 

One of the biggest frustrations for employees who take the time to give thoughtful feedback is feeling like their comments are ignored.

Asking the right questions and gaining good response rates in your pulse survey are only the first steps in the journey.

The most important part of your pulse surveys is developing an action plan and communicating the results so that employees can see that you are listening and acting on their feedback.

Here are the steps we recommend:

  • Immediately after survey closure, thank employees for their participation and explain the timeline for next steps.
  • Evaluate the launch communications channels for their effectiveness to shape your ‘You Said, We Did’ campaign.
  • Analyse results and discuss findings with senior leaders and team managers.
  • Create an action plan based on your results. Depending on your organisation, it can work well to make this collaborative and bring managers into this conversation too.
  • Communicate the survey results, comments from senior leaders, and action plan to employees as soon as possible. It’s also a good idea to let them know the next survey date.

Employee pulse survey examples

 

Now that you’re filled in on what pulse surveys are, and the different ways you can use them with your team, we’ve put together some pulse survey examples that you might want to use in your next employee pulse survey.

For more examples, download the Pulse Survey Handbook which comes with 70+ employee pulse survey questions.

 

Employee engagement pulse survey questions

 

  • I am inspired by the purpose and mission of our organisation.
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
    Follow-up question: Help us understand why you feel that way.

 

  • How would you rate your level of happiness at work?
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Very Unhappy – Very Happy)
    Follow-up question: Please share more detail.

 

  • How would you rate our team culture this year?
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Very Poor – Very Good)
    Follow-up questions: Why did you answer that way?

 

  • I would recommend this organisation as a great place to work.
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
    Follow-up question: Share with us why you answered that way.

 

  • I feel a sense of fulfilment from my work.
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
    Follow-up question: Please share examples that contributed to your answer.

Mental health pulse survey questions

 

  • How would you rate your current mental wellbeing?
    Answer Type: 1-10 (Very poor – Excellent)
    Follow-up question: What are the biggest causes of pressure in your life?

 

  • I feel comfortable talking about my mental health at work.
    Answer Type: 1-10 (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
    Follow-Up Question: Please share the details and experiences that contributed to your score.

 

  • My manager has created an environment where mental health can be discussed.
    Answer Type: 1-10 (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
    Follow-up question: Please share what contributed to your score.

 

  • When I ask my manager for support, they can give me what I need.
    Answer Type: 1-10 (Never – Always)
    Follow-up question: Please share detail that will help us understand your score

 

  • My organisation cares about my mental health.
    Answer Type: 1-10 (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
    Follow-Up Question: What contributed to your score? Please share details

Working from home pulse survey questions

 

  • How trusted do you feel by your team and manager when working from home?
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Not at All – Very)
    Follow-up question: Please share detail to help us understand your answer.

 

  • Are you in regular contact with your team and manager?
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Never – All the Time)
    Follow-Up Question: Why did you score this way?

 

  • Do you have a healthy work and life balance when working from home?
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Not at All – Very)
    Follow-Up Question: What can we do to improve your score?

 

  • How supported do you feel by [Organisation] when working from home?
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Not at All – Very)
    Follow-Up Question: What can we do to improve your score?

 

  • How satisfied are you with the frequency of communication from leadership?
    Answer Type: 1 – 10 (Not at All – Very)
    Follow-Up Question: Why did you score this way?

 

  • What communication channels work best for you?
    Answer Type: Multiple Choice: Email, Internal Channels e.g., Slack/Teams, Phone Calls, Whatsapp, Other.
    Follow-up question: How can we improve communication for you when you’re working from home?

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